Hull welcome Chelsea, with Liam Rosenior faced with an early meeting in his new role against his old employer.

Chelsea come into this clash having given up a 2-0 lead during the week as Leeds earned a 2-2 draw in a game that Chelsea looked to be in complete control of.

Hull have had a strong season in the Championship to date, and their focus may be on the league campaign in truth, but they represent an awkward opponent for Rosenior given his previous ties to the club.

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📈 Hull v Chelsea Form & Stats

Hull have surprised quite a few people this season with their performances in the Championship. Hull currently sit fourth in the division, only five points behind Coventry, who occupy the second automatic promotion place, with Middlesbrough recently knocking them off their perch at the top of the Championship.

There is certainly a race on for those promotion spots in the wake of Coventry’s recent collapse, and that may be more important to Hull than a cup run. That being said, Ipswich and Millwall are also in that race, and it’s not clear if Hull will be able to handle the pressure of the run-in.

Hull have already scored more goals in the Championship this term (50) than they did throughout the entirety of the previous campaign (44). This is a good metric to show the scale of improvement that has been achieved at Hull, and suggests that they will present an awkward challenge for Chelsea in this cup tie.

Liam Rosenior was borderline irate in his press conference following Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with Leeds during the week, which was an understandable display of emotion after he’d just seen his side give up a two-goal lead in comical fashion. I always come back to the fact that this squad isn't the youngest ever assembled in the Premier League. They struggle when it comes to controlling matches and maintaining discipline.

This is a trophy Chelsea usually have quite a bit of success in; their run to the semi-finals of the EFL Cup shows that Chelsea are more than capable of putting together a strong run in the FA Cup as a way for Rosenior to really get settled at the club. Despite the varying standards of performance we’ve seen from Rosenior’s side so far, Chelsea have posted decent results since he took charge with just two defeats - both against Arsenal - across his first 10 matches in charge.

📔 Hull v Chelsea Formation & Team News

Hull may go with a five at the back here in an attempt to keep Chelsea at bay as long as possible. That being said, I don’t think Hull will be completely conservative on their approach to this clash as you can definitely pick holes in this Chelsea backline, which has only managed to keep two clean sheets, both at Stamford Bridge, across Rosenior’s 10 games in charge at Chelsea so far.

Hull do have a few key players out at the moment, but both of their top scorers in the Championship this term are set to start here. Kyle Joseph and Oli McBurnie have been quite the duo so far this season, and this is the exact setup that has caused Chelsea so many problems this season. Chelsea’s loss against Leeds at Elland Road comes to mid where Chelsea struggled to deal with the physical nature of Calvert-Lewin and his striking partner.

Chelsea will line up in a 4-2-3-1 shape, with two things clearly standing out from Rosenior’s first ten matches in charge. Rosenior wants his side to press man for man, which is risky, and I do think sides will start to work it out - but for now it has been quite effective, and a move away from the more targeted pressing approach of Enzo Maresca.

Rosenior also prefers having two holding players in his system, and Andrey Santos has been particularly impressive over recent matches, which isn’t that surprising, seeing as he blossomed under Rosenior when the pair were at Strasbourg last season. Chelsea’s injuries look to be spiralling again with James, Cucurella, Gittens, Colwill, and Lavia expected to miss this clash. Chelsea are also expected to rotate quite heavily for this encounter.

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